


Picture Perfect

by taitofan



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Feelings Realization, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Photography, Requited Unrequited Love, Romance, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25414309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taitofan/pseuds/taitofan
Summary: Sebek doesn't think much of Lilia's request to take a picture of Malleus for MagiCam.    But what's better than just one picture?  A dozen, of course!
Relationships: Malleus Draconia/Sebek Zigvolt
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Picture Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna pretend that while Lilia doesn't want Malleus to be seen courting a ghost, he wouldn't mind if the world knows Sebek loves him. Yanno, just my two cents~ Also, Cater needs to help Sebek with hashtags.

Sebek couldn’t deny that Lilia had tricked him a few times since he started attending Night Raven College. And that was fine; he saw it as training to be more aware, more cautious. After all, how could he possibly help his master if he was so easily fooled? Therefore, it wasn’t as if he’d had no reason to be weary when Lilia told him something he could do to cheer Malleus up. His first response had been to yell “ _ The young master is unhappy?! _ ” and the next had been to question Lilia’s motives.

“ _ This is not comparable to influencing you to eat an odd combination of food _ ,” Lilia had said with a perfectly straight face. “ _ Malleus is not happy constantly being feared and left out of his peers’ activities. However, I know of a way in which you may help him… _ ”

And truly, how was Sebek supposed to say no to  _ that _ ?

“The angle needs to be perfect… The sun must hit him just right…” Sebek had no other thought on his mind as he shuffled around the bushes as quietly as he could, trying to capture the perfect shot of Malleus as he spoke with Lilia and Silver outside. It was a lovely day, and it was as if the sun shone merely to capture his master’s ethereal beauty. “...There!”

His phone snapped the picture, and to Sebek’s delight it had come out  _ spectacularly _ . Malleus didn’t look scary at all—not that Sebek ever found him frightening, but he’d seen how students from other dorms acted, and he thought they were right to be in awe of Malleus’s powerful presence!—in fact, he looked relaxed, with a gentle quirk of a smile on his lips. Just looking at it made Sebek’s heart pound in his chest, but he forced himself to focus as he uploaded the picture to his MagiCam account, just as Lilia had instructed him.

He’d taken a photo that showed Malleus in a softer light, and now he just needed to put the tags. Lilia had said that he should be honest with them and to not hold back his thoughts. Sebek still wasn’t sure why only  _ he  _ could do this, but it was with great pride that he helped his master. A few hashtags later, and it was sent.

#MalleusDraconia #cute #verycute #supercute #YoungMasterIsRadiant

He smiled and pocketed his phone, standing up from the bushes and running to join the others. He’d make sure everyone adored Malleus as much as he did. He swore it!

\---

Sebek woke up the next day and went through his usual routine, nothing seeming out of place at all. In fact, it wasn’t until his first class that remembered his MagiCam post. He hurriedly pulled his phone out before class started and was met with more notifications than he knew how to start reading. Ignoring them for the time being, he went straight to his account, seeing that his follower account had  _ skyrocketed _ . The views, likes, and shares of his photo were  _ astronomical _ . As for the comments…

“Any naughty puppies who aren’t ready for class in the next ten seconds are getting a whipping!”

Professor Crewel’s very real threat didn’t allow him to read any of the comments, but he saw that there were far more than he’d imagined. With a happy grin, he pocketed his phone, knowing what he had to do now. If that was what one picture accomplished, what about a dozen or so more…?

\---

Between classes. At lunch. Outside during a break. At the Gargoyle Appreciation Club—which he risked Riddle’s wrath for being late to his own club for. During dinner. In the dorm that night.

He’d diligently taken pictures all day when Malleus wasn’t paying attention to him, uploading them as soon as he could. He gained more followers and saw the numbers rise, making him downright joyous that so many people were finally seeing Malleus as he did! And with every upload came the hashtags, all similar to the first one, telling of Malleus’s grace and beauty and intelligence and—

“Sebek, I need you!”

He’d just finished uploading his last picture—Malleus eating his dinner with an elegance only a being as great as  _ he  _ could achieve—when he heard Lilia’s voice from outside his dorm room. He sounded amused, which was rarely a good thing, but nonetheless he got up from his bed and left to follow Lilia. No one ever said a word as he left, which was fine with him. He knew they found him annoying, and Malleus always looked so disappointed in him when Sebek yelled at them for being disrespectful, so it was best for everyone if they all ignored each other.

“Where are we going so late?” he questioned as he followed Lilia. “I was nearly ready to change into my pajamas and—”

“Malleus wants to see you,” Lilia cut him off, amusement still clear in his tone.

That shut Sebek up immediately, his mind scrambling to figure out why Malleus was summoning him. Was there danger? Was he in trouble? Was he going to lose his privilege to work under his master? Or… He felt his face heat up as he wondered if maybe he would be  _ praised  _ for something! Such an occurrence never failed to fill him with overwhelming joy!

“Mayhap you can cease your daydreaming and go see what he wants." Lilia sounded on the verge of laughing, but Sebek did his best to ignore his teasing, knocking on the door with an embarrassed flush on his cheeks. "Good luck~!"

Thankfully, Malleus opened the door as Lilia flitted away. To his shame, he knew his face was still red, but Malleus made no mention of it. He merely opened the door more and gestured for Sebek to enter. “Thank you for coming. I know it’s late, but I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday, and I feel we should discuss this.”

To say Sebek had no idea what he was talking about was nothing but the utter truth.

“Huh?”

Not eloquent, for sure, but Malleus wasted no time walking over to his desk and picking up a phone. “Sebek, did you forget that Lilia, Silver, and I are all following you on MagiCam?”

There was a pause. A  _ long  _ pause. During which, Sebek’s brain realized  _ exactly  _ what that meant, and then berated him for forgetting such a fact just because Malleus never used his own account. He’d been there when Lilia set them up for the whole group!

“Young M—” Malleus’s eyes narrowed, and he quickly stopped himself. “Malleus, I am truly sorry for bringing shame upon your magnificent name! I merely wanted the other students to see you as I do!”

Malleus looked down at his phone for a moment, then back up at Sebek with a smirk that made his heart beat wildly. “Cute and radiant?”

“I… That is…” This was it, he thought. The moment where he was banished from the Land of Thorns forever, perhaps even tossed out of Diasomnia, never to see his beloved master again! But if he’d hurt Malleus, he deserved whatever was coming to him. With a tone much softer than usual, he continued, “I was… advised to take photos of you and be honest with my feelings, and I  _ did _ . I cannot take that back, but I apologize for being an inconvenience.”

Malleus didn’t say anything for a moment, staring at Sebek as if searching for something written on his face. “Cute… No one has ever called me that aside from Lilia. Who, I suppose, was the one who planted this idea in your head?”

“Yes,” he confirmed with a sharp nod of his head, “but it’s not—”

“Not his fault?” Malleus laughed at that, though there was no vitriol behind it. “Lilia couldn’t mind his own business if his life depended on it. He must have gotten tired of us dancing around the issue of our feelings for one another.”

Sebek wanted to agree. Lilia, in fact,  _ was  _ constantly poking into someone’s business, and he really didn’t understand how Silver could stay sane when he had most of Lilia’s attention. Lilia was even calling Silver into his room at night all the time! What was so important that it couldn’t wait until morning, anyway?

But then his mind seemed to short circuit as he processed the last part of that sentence.

“ _ O-Our _ ? Young Master, you can’t possibly be insinuating that you have feelings for a lowly—”

He was cut off again, but rather than an unapproving glare, it was a pair of lips capturing his own. Sebek thought that he must be dreaming! Surely, there was no way Malleus was actually kissing him! His master, Crown Prince of the Land of Thorns? How could he ever love a lowly guard? And yet… There he was, doing just that. And when Malleus pulled away just as quickly as he’d begun, he was  _ blushing _ .

_ Malleus Draconia _ was  _ blushing  _ and it was the most adorable sight in the  _ world _ .

“...You didn’t return the kiss. Was I mistaken?”

“No! Absolutely not!” He all but fell over himself as he tried to explain himself, “I was surprised! I never ever thought you’d… And with  _ me… _ !”

“I see…” Malleus smiled softly as he began to understand. It was truly unfair how beautiful he was. “I apologize for stealing a kiss. I just couldn’t stand hearing you call me that and insult yourself in the same breath. Anyone I love is  _ not  _ lowly. So never say such a thing again.”

“Yes…”

Malleus, apparently satisfied, took a step back and held up his phone again. Sebek could see the last picture he’d uploaded on the screen. “I’m just seeing this one now. It’s a very good shot. You have an eye for this.” He laughed softly as he turned it back to himself and scrolled down. “Have you read many of the comments on these?”

“I haven’t. What exactly are they saying?” Rather than answer, Malleus held out his phone. Sebek gasped as he accepted it, cradling it as if it were a holy relic. He started to read, feeling a bit more foolish the further he got. What exactly had he expected to happen again…?

_ Its about time they got 2gether _

_ Zigvolt continues to never shut up about Draconia what a shock _

_ fuk malleus is hot not fair _

_ Think Sebek will cool it now that they’re dating? _

_ wwwwww never _

Everyone had taken the photos to mean they’d started dating.

“...Did you know I was taking your photo the entire time?” Malleus nodded. “And you didn’t stop me…?”

“I knew you’d never betray me,” was the simple answer. So simple, in fact, that Sebek felt his eyes sting as emotion welled within his chest. “Don’t cry. I still need to thank you for making me realize my feelings for you. It seems everyone realized you love me  _ except _ for me… And I couldn’t articulate my own feelings until I thought about what you said about me. You’re always at my side, defending me. Even if it was Lilia’s idea, you still put your own feelings into it, and I’m grateful. I realized just why I get so irritated when you call me your master, and that’s because it implies I’m better than you. But we aren’t master and servant, Sebek. We’re prince and knight, and, if you’d like… I want to be more.”

“Malleus…” The name, despite how many times he said it, still felt heavy on his tongue, as if saying it was breaking some taboo. But now that he understood Malleus’s aversion to being called master, he knew he’d have to make an even harder effort. While he didn’t think he could ever be equal to someone as magnificent as Malleus, he had to make his beloved happy. Both as a knight, and now as, well… “I want nothing more than to be with you and make you happy in any way I can.”

Malleus smiled and reached out to wipe at a tear Sebek hadn’t even realized had slipped out. “And I can say the same for you, Sebek. I will stay by your side just as you stay by mine.”

As Malleus leaned in again for a kiss—which was  _ happily  _ returned this time—Sebek didn’t worry about any legalities or rumors or anything far into the future. How could he when he had the one thing he wanted above all else? And he swore, he would never,  _ ever  _ let Malleus’s love go.

\---

The next morning, a new photo went up on Sebek’s MagiCam account.

A picture of Malleus leaning down to be in the shot with Sebek, their cheeks pressed together and smiles on their faces.

_ Going to breakfast with my boyfriend (he told me to put that!) _

_ #MalleusDraconia #cute #beautiful #radiant #MalleusSaidNoMoreThenThreeAdjectives #boyfriend #happy #ILoveYou _


End file.
